An early NBC ad for “Star Trek.” Although the promo said September 15, NBC actually aired it a week early on September 8, 1966. Video source: TrekkieChannel YouTube channel.
The Star Trek “crown jewels” reside today in university libraries. At UCLA are the personal papers of creator Gene Roddenberry and associate producer Bob Justman. Showrunner Gene Coon's papers are at the University of Wyoming. Desliu executive Oscar Katz's papers are at the University of Maryland. Some founding fathers long ago sold off at auction their personal papers and other Star Trek memorabilia.
For researchers, none of it is in one place and, for the most part, unavailable online due to various copyright rules. I'd love to read through Roddenberry's papers, but a 3,000 mile trip to UCLA is not practical.
I have, however, found the next best thing.
In 2013, author Marc Cushman published a trilogy of books covering the show's original three-season run. Cushman had access to Roddenberry's and Justman's papers before they went to UCLA. Collectively called These Are The Voyages, I've acquired the trilogy and will cite them where used as an authoritative source.
I also found the TV Writing website, which is a PDF collection of scripts for Star Trek and other TV shows. Click here for the available TOS scripts. Not all scripts are available, but “The Man Trap” is, and so we plunge into this column's episode.
“The Man Trap” was originally a title for a very different concept. In Roddenberry's March 11, 1964 sixteen-page concept outline used to pitch the show to the networks, he listed a number of “story springboards.” One was called “The Man Trap.”
THE MAN TRAP. A desert trek story, taking members of our band from one point on a planet to another. But what appears to be a pleasant totally earthlike and harmless world, rapidly develops into a hundred miles of fear and suspicion as Captain April and crew begin to encounter strange apparitions. Actually more than apparitions, these are wish-fulfillment traps which become as real as flesh and blood. Whatever a man wants most will appear before him, i.e., water, food, a female, a long-dead parent, gold, or even a way to power. The traps become increasingly subtle to the point where our crew nearly destroys itself out of a total inability to separate the reality they must have from the apparitions which will destroy them.
A whiff of this premise remains in “The Man Trap” — and in other episodes, such as “The Cage” — but it sounds more like “Shore Leave,” which will be produced later in the first season. The episode that aired with the title “The Man Trap” is about an alien version of a chameleon that alters its appearance to whatever might attract prey.
Although this was the fourth first-season episode to be produced, it was the first to air. In their memoir Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, Desilu executive Herb Solow and Star Trek associate producer Bob Justman wrote that NBC wanted the first aired episode to be simple for the viewing audience to understand. Justman wrote, “I suspected the NBC people wanted 'Man Trap,' because it was scarier and more exploitable than the others.” It took place on a “strange new world” as promised by the opening narrative, and featured a monster creature as an antagonist.
According to Marc Cushman, the captain's logs had yet to be written when the episode was filmed. After watching a rough cut of the episode, Justman sent Roddenberry a memo advising, “… since this is liable to be our first or second show on the air, I think it would be wise to establish where we are and what we are doing over these shots.” Roddenberry agreed, and said he was writing it.
The script was originally assigned to veteran TV writer Lee Erwin, who had written “To Set It Right” for Roddenberry's last series, The Lieutnant. That episode was notable not only for depicting racism within the US Marine Corps, but also for the on-screen debut of Nichelle Nichols in a supporting role.
Unlike many of the writers Roddenberry recruited for the first season, Erwin had no science fiction literature background. Among his many credits were the amateur detective series Mr. and Mrs. North, the family adventure Western Circus Boy, and the scuba-diving action series Sea Hunt.
According to Marc Cushman's research, Erwin was the one who came up with the idea of a salt-sucking vampire, as well as the ability to fool its victims with illusions. But Roddenberry and Justman felt the premise needed more — more action, and more depth to its antagonist.
This was where George Clayton Johnson came in. Johnson had written seven episodes of The Twilight Zone among many other non-genre scripts. He told Roddenbery about his Twilight Zone episode, “The Four of Us Are Dying,” which had a person who could change his appearance. He coupled that with the notion of a creature who was the last of its kind, such as the nearly extinct buffalo.
Roddenberry paid Erwin a cancellation fee and reassigned the script to Johnson. According to Cushman, Johnson struggled with script revisions, in part because he was trying to honor the opening narrative's promise to explore strange new worlds. He and associate producer John D.F. Black debated how soon the plot should transfer from the planet surface to the Enterprise. It's also important to keep in mind that — as with other hired writers, even Roddenberry, Justman, and Black — everyone was still struggling with the creation of the Star Trek universe and its characters.
We discussed in earlier columns that Roddenberry's original format had each episode being told by the captain as a reminiscence of an earlier adventure. The stories so far — the two pilots and the three earlier episodes — were all captain-centric. This is the first episode that gives any significant story time to a different character — in this case, Chief Medical Officer Leonard McCoy. Spock's turn will have to wait, because NBC had encouraged Roddenberry to tone down Spock's presence, fearing he might appear too satanic for Bible Belt audiences.
As he did with most scripts, Roddenberry added his own final polish to Johnson's script. None of the changes are fundamental, but they reflect an effort by Gene to pacify the network. Marc Cushman, who reviewed all the various drafts, concluded:
Roddenberry's rewrite … was more in line with what NBC was asking for, putting emphasis on action/adventure … with a monster. Johnson's version had just a bit more heart.
Cushman wrote that, “'The Man Trap' is a study in loneliness. This is not a simple Man against Beast tale, but more so Man against Himself.” For me, I view the episode as a question of sentience. If the creature is sentient, does it deserve mercy?
Let's begin with the definition of sentience.
The Sentience Institute preaches the concept of the moral circle, which refers to “the boundary around entities that are granted moral consideration.”
At Sentience Institute, we are mainly interested in the societal moral circle. This captures the laws, policies, and norms that are intended to protect the interests of different entities. We envision a society where all sentient beings, that is, beings with the capacity for positive and negative experiences, are included in the inner moral circle. Note that this does not mean we think all sentient entities should be treated in exactly the same way. Different entities have different interests. Being in the inner circle means an entity’s specific set of interests are given full moral consideration, not that they are treated in exactly the same way as others in the circle.
Sentience Science views the question in the context of the animal rights movement.
Agreeing on the premise that sentient beings are capable of experiencing pain and suffering, most humans would further agree that it is morally wrong to inflict unnecessary pain or suffering. It may be persuasively argued that humans should not restrict our scope of protection to only sentient beings, because non-sentient things — trees and rivers, for example — also have intrinsic value. The primary importance of sentience as a moral measuring stick, however, is based on the idea that most people would agree that beings who can suffer should not be made to suffer unnecessarily.
Perhaps our question is not sentience, but sapience. Here's one person's definition:
Sentience: The ability to feel emotions, have a subjective experience, develop a personality, and form a morality.
Sapience: The ability to act rationally, to learn, to understand.
Is the salt vampire a sentient creature? Is it a sapient creature? Must its life be taken, or can it be spared?
I raise the issue because, in a later first season episode, a similar moral question will be raised. In “The Devil in the Dark,” the 25th first season episode to be produced, another indigenous creature is killing humans. We learn that the Horta is acting not out of malice but defense, protecting its offspring. Spock is the only one who pleads for compassion, although Kirk eventually acknowledges the Horta's intelligence. In “The Man Trap,” no one speaks for the creature other than Doctor Crater and the creature itself. It acts not out of malice but survival. We later learn that the creature killed Crater's wife Nancy but, after he began feeding it salt pills, they cohabited peacefully for a year.
The distinction between the two episodes may be when they were written. “The Man Trap” was crafted in the summer of 1966, before any episode had aired, when Roddenberry and his writing staff were still figuring out the Star Trek universe. By the time “The Devil in the Dark” was written by staff writer Gene Coon, everyone had a better handle on what the show was about and the characters' traits.
Let's visit this episode in the context of the creature's perspective.
The first time viewing audiences saw the Enterprise bridge. Spock is in command, and Uhura is at navigation.
The episode opens with the Enterprise in orbit around Planet M-113. This is the first time a viewing audience has seen the ship and its crew. Uhura in a red uniform (remember, in the first two filmed episodes she wore gold) is at the navigation console while an unnamed crewmember (in later episodes, he's Lt. Leslie) is at the helm. Spock is in command. We hear Kirk's voiceover establishing the circumstances. It's interesting that two of the first characters we meet are the ones the network feared — the satanic Vulcan and the female African-American.
Kirk, McCoy, and crewman Darnell beam down to perform a required examination of the Craters. These archaeologists are documenting the remains of a long-lost civilization. Why and how it fell, we're never told. McCoy once had a romance with Nancy, before she married Crater.
“Nancy” walks into their quarters. We later learn this isn't Nancy, but the creature, which has the ability to appear to a person in whatever form is pleasing. (The creature is not a shape-shifter.) To McCoy, Nancy appears as she did when they parted ten years ago. Kirk sees Nancy but older, gray-haired. Darnell sees a “provocative, brassy blonde” according to the script. He says she reminds him of a girl he met on Wrigley's Pleasure Planet. Kirk orders Darnell to step outside. Nancy calls McCoy “Plum,” an old affectionate nickname, so clearly the creature can read minds.
Although the civilization was built by the creatures' race, we see no evidence of them. We do see statues of a grotesque. Perhaps the production team didn't want to give away the final reveal, although it would have been nice to see a carving of the creature species.
Nancy says she'll go find Crater. Once outside, Darnell sees her again as the blonde. Nancy seduces him into the ruins.
Crater, meanwhile, is most uncooperative. He demands they deliver salt tablets and leave. Hearing Nancy scream, they run outside and find her (appearing older to everyone) next to the dead Darnell, who becomes the first Enterprise crewmember killed on the show. (A trivia question for your next nerd party …) McCoy declares, “Dead, Jim.” (Bones said “He's dead, Jim” in “The Enemy Within,” referring to the deceased space canine). The ex-Darnell has red circular mottling on his face. Kirk finds a green plant in his mouth. The Craters claim he ate a poisonous Borgia plant. Nancy reminds Kirk and McCoy about their request for salt.
Darnell's remains are beamed up to the ship. In sickbay (called “Dispensary” in the script), McCoy concludes there's no evidence of poisoning. Kirk is in a mood, demands to know what killed his crewmember. McCoy finds the body is missing salt, which Spock finds “fascinating.” (I believe this is the second time he's used the word; the first was in “The Corbomite Maneuver.”) Kirk connects this new evidence to the Craters' requests for salt tablets, and beams down again, this time with Spock and two more sacrificial lambs, er, crewmembers. Although neither wears a red shirt, the creature quickly desalinates both of them.
Crater runs off to find the creature. The creature assumes the appearance of crewman Green. Kirk orders the landing party beamed up, which means the Green-impersonating creature is now aboard the starship.
A couple observations here … The creature is wearing a phaser and holster belt. Did she take it off Green, or is that an illusion too? When the landing party beamed aboard, the creature materializes as Green, but would someone unaffected have seen the creature materialize? Would the yet-to-be-established pattern buffer know it was materializing Green or the creature? Oh well.
The creature, all but starving on M-113, now has a salt buffet from which to feed. Still appearing as Green, it encounters Janice Rand, who has a meal tray with salt and pepper shakers. The creature follows her into Sulu's botany lab(!), never seen again. In the second pilot, where we first met Sulu, he was an astrophysicist. In this episode, Sulu is not only a helmsman but dabbles in botany. In the lab is … well, here's how the script describes it.
The “sentient plant” in Sulu's botany lab.
In the center of the room — obviously one of Sulu's prize pets — is a large, undulating plant, swaying with sentient life and gives off a CHIMING, MELODIC HUM, like a harmonium.
Because it's not affected by the illusions, the plant screeches at the creature's presence and retreats into its nest. (The script once again refers to it as a “sentient plant.”)
The creature flees into the corridor, where it encounters Uhura. Its appearance changes yet again, this time into what the script calls a “Negro Crewman.” (A product of its time.) The creature hypnotizes Uhura and is about to feed, when Rand and Sulu approach to break the spell.
We've seen the creature feed on both men and women, so I guess it's not gender-picky. A lion doesn't ask the gazelle its gender either.
The creature spots a non-descript crewman alone. They exit off-screen. We've seen enough Planet Earth episodes to know how that will end.
Wandering the corridors, the creature stumbles across McCoy's quarters. It changes back into Nancy. “You do care, don't you, Leonard?” Bones is the only one the creature never tries to drain. Is that calculated because McCoy is an asset? Or is it genuine affection? The script doesn't offer a clue. Either way, it suggests this is a cunning creature, more than just an animal hunting on instinct. She persuades him to take a sleeping pill. The creature assumes McCoy's image and heads for the bridge.
Sulu and Janice find the desalinated n.d. crewman. (His name was Barnhart.) The body count is up to four. The secret's out, the creature is aboard. Back on the surface, Kirk and Spock find the ex-Green's body. They capture Crater, who reveals the truth. “She was the last of her kind … the last of its kind.” He compares the creature to Earth's passenger pigeon or buffalo. Kirk declares the difference — “Your creature is killing my people!”
Back aboard the Enterprise, the creature attends a staff meeting as McCoy. It states, “We could offer it salt without tricks. There's no reason for it to attack us.” Crater adds, “The creature is not dangerous when fed.” He argues that the creature is intelligent and needs love as much as humans do. “You bleed too much, Crater,” Kirk replies. Crater admits he can see the creature in its true form but refuses to help Kirk find it. Kirk orders McCoy to take Crater to sickbay for a truth serum injection; Spock accompanies them.
The creature attacks Spock, but fails because Vulcan blood is different. For the first time, we see green Vulcan blood, on Spock's forehead where the creature struck him. (And yet his scar is red …) Crater is dead, desalinated. So much for love and loyalty and all that.
The creature in its true form.
Reverting back into Nancy, the creature returns to McCoy's quarters. Kirk enters; I guess he went looking for the real McCoy, so to speak. The captain offers “Nancy” salt tablets; she can't resist. The creature paralyzes Kirk and is about to feed; McCoy has a phaser but can't pull the trigger. Spock enters (with a ridiculous bandage on his forehead); the creature smites him with one blow. The creature reverts to its true appearance — what the script calls a “beast” and begins to feed on Kirk. Bones shoots the creature; it slumps against the wall, reverts to Nancy, and looks back at McCoy. The creature begs him to spare it, but McCoy finishes it off.
The episode ends with Kirk in the captain's chair, Spock and McCoy at his side. “I was thinking about the buffalo, Mister Spock.” We fade to black.
If this episode had been written a year later, maybe even six months later, perhaps the ending would have been different. The creature could have been stunned heavily enough to put it in the brig. It could have been transported to the surface with a lifetime supply of salt tablets. Perhaps a means could have been found to artificially generate salt from the planet's resources. It would have lived out its life, a lonely life, but a full one.
Is it sentient? Is it sapient? Did it have the capacity to restrain its hunting instincts? From what we saw, apparently not, although it did co-exist with Crater for a year so long as salt was available. But it seems to me that it might have been worth the effort to establish a dialogue, perhaps dispatch a science vessel to learn the lost civilization's history from it, keep it company, maybe even clone other M-113 creatures in an attempt to repopulate the species.
Six months or a year later, Spock probably would have advocated for such an alternative. But at this early stage, he doesn't.
That's why we should contrast this with the decisions made in the episode, “The Devil in the Dark,” which we'll visit down the line.
You'll see the salt vampire again. It will show up later this season as Trelane's trophy in “The Squire of Gothos.”
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, “The Man Trap” was the first episode to air. Here are a few random newspaper reviews the next day.
“Star Trek” didn't offer any great moments … and I know how William Shatner must feel after seeing himself in those rushes and then remembering the juicy role as an attorney he had in the defunct “Of the People” (Or was it “For the People?”)
The producers have billed “Star Trek” as science fiction drama and in this respect they have failed. As a competitive series of space adventure for the youngsters in the format of “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” and “Lost in Space,” perhaps “Star Trek” will fare well. But against the earlier science fiction dramas in “Twilight Zone,” “One Step Beyond” or “The Outer Limits,” the new series wouldn't stand a chance.
Man has yet to conquer the universe. But man is coming close. NBC's “Star-Trek,” might have the whole thing aced out.
“Star-Trek,” is, frankly, weird. But the costumes and visual effects are right out of the old Frankenstein movies. It's a shocker baby — if you're easily shocked.
The thing takes place on a huge space ship and to keep the thing kosher there are boy-girl relationships and bad guys and good guys. All aboard the same ship. Also bad girls and good girls. Nothing strange about outer space, toots.
William Shatner, a legitimate pro actor, plays the lead. It's easy fantasy. Ray guns anyone?
Another hour-long NBC-TV series, “Star Trek,” a science fiction opus centering around a mammoth space ship, is so absurd that it is almost entertaining, what with a playboy bunny-type waitress. The premiere was a futuristic twist on the old vampire films. The villain, a creature able to change itself into any human form, required salt to survive, and got it by helping itself to the body content of other people, leaving them very deceased. Tune in next week. Whee!
“Star Trek” is the kind of comic strip adventure that is giving science fiction a bad name. It concerned an enormous space ship roaming through the cosmos on a five year inspection tour of our far-out neighbors. Aside from some brilliant camera work and a virtuoso performance by the makeup department this was a tedious and depressing hour.
